Overcome your fear of public speaking by being well prepared

You are only four steps away from having all the best public speaking techniques and tools you'll need to organize yourself to deliver the best speech you possibly can. Fear of public speaking and stage fright really often relate to the fact that as a speaker you're just not sure how your speech will be received by your audience. The best tips on public speaking any speaker can give you are that you need to be well prepared in advance and you need to try to eliminate unpredictable outcomes as much as you can. When something happens while you are on stage that you "really" didn't expect, you need to have a back-up plan or else you'll freeze and you'll loose your train of thought. Nothing can replace practice and preparation. The following public speaking techniques to preparing yourself will drill these points even further. Step #1 ― GATHERING MATERIAL Having chosen a theme for your speech, the logical order to follow is 1) gather the material, 2) carefully select the best from the material you've gathered and arrange it in order of delivery (what will be your introduction, main topic and conclusion) 3) have a clear picture in your mind of the entire speech and the order in which it will be presented. The task of finding material may be slow and tedious at first, but successive efforts will make it much easier. The habit of completely "thinking out" a subject should be cultivated from the beginning to avoid wasting time. Thoughts should be noted down in writing as they occur and not be left to the caprice of memory (we lead such busy lives, create a "note pad" on your computer or a Word document to gather any ideas that come to mind). To do a proper job at gathering your material, make sure you start well in advance because it does take time and you don't want to rush the process. After exhausting the resources of your own mind, you may next turn to books in order to confirm and strengthen ideas and gather further new material. You will also need to interact with well-informed people whenever possible. Note worthy: the note-book habit can not be too strongly urged here as the only safeguard against lapses of memory. References, ideas, quotations and arguments should be promptly put down in writing. At this stage of preparing a speech you should eagerly read books, magazines and newspapers, with a view to finding further suitable material. The advice given to preachers by Prof. Arthur S. Hoyt (he was a religious public speaker), applies equally to other public speakers. He says: "By all means do your own thinking. Fix your thought upon the text and subject, and try to penetrate to its vital meaning. Find the message for your own soul in it. Believe in the spirit of truth and learn to trust your own judgment as enlightened by his influence. Do not go at once to commentaries and homiletic handbooks for material, but let your own thought grow by thinking. Take stock of your own mental and spiritual resources. Be thoroughly yourself and find your own voice, for in this way only will you have that personal and individual flavor which makes the charm of true preaching." Step #2 ― ARRANGING MATERIAL The second step, that of selecting what is desirable from this mass of unarranged material, requires unusual skill and judgment. Many pet ideas and phrases must be discarded (a.k.a. get rid of as many clich